Palmitic and erucic acid metabolism in isolated perfused hearts from weanling pigs

Synergistic vascular toxicity and fatty acid anilides in the toxic oil syndrome

The underlying etiology of the toxic oil syndrome may be related to any of several toxic contaminants. The hypothesis is made that two or more toxic compounds may act synergistically to cause vascular damage in the toxic oil syndrome. To support this hypothesis, previous studies are reviewed concerning the remarkable synergistic toxic action of allylamine and beta-aminopropionitrile on the media of blood vessels. Although these toxins are not directly related to the toxic oil syndrome, this previous experimental work emphasizes the possibility that unexplored synergistic actions may be important. Furthermore, the hypothesis that contaminating fatty acid anilides in toxic oil undergo alterations during cooking is supported by high pressure liquid chromatographic analysis. The theoretic metabolism of fatty acid anilides is discussed. Recent data concerning the toxic actions of the anilides of oleic and linoleic acid are given. These data suggest that these anilides induce immunologic alterations that may be similar to those seen in the toxic oil syndrome. In addition, the heated anilides appear to have increased toxicity, supporting the concept that the use of toxic oil in cooking may increase its toxicity.

Myocardial changes in newborn piglets fed sow milk or milk replacer diets containing different levels of erucic acid

This study was undertaken to determine whether the neonate was more susceptible to the effects of dietary erucic acid (22:1n-9) than the adult. Newborn piglets were used to assess the safety of different levels of 22:1n-9 on lipid and histological changes in the heart. Newborn piglets showed no myocardial lipidosis as assessed by oil red 0 staining, but lipidosis appeared with consumption of sow milk and disappeared by seven days of age. Milk replacer diets containing soybean oil, or rapeseed oil mixtures with up to 5% 22:1n-9 in the oil, or 1.25% in the diet, gave trace myocardial lipidosis. Rapeseed oil mixtures with 7 to 42.9% 22:1n-9 showed definite myocardial lipidosis in newborn piglets, which correlated to dietary 22:1n-9, showing a maximum after one week on diet. The severity of the lipidosis was greater than observed previously with weaned pigs. There were no significant differences among diets in cardiac lipid classes except for triacylglycerol (TAG), which increased in piglets fed a rapeseed oil with 42.9% 22:1n-9. TAG showed the highest incorporation of 22:1n-9, the concentration of 22:1n-9 in TAG was similar to that present in the dietary oil. Among the cardiac phospholipids, sphingomyelin and phosphatidylserine had the highest, and diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG) the lowest level of 22:1n-9. The low content of 22:1n-9 in DPG of newborn piglets is not observed in weaned pigs and rats fed high erucic acid rapeseed oil. The relative concentration of saturated fatty acids was lowered in all cardiac phospholipids of piglets fed rapeseed oils, possibly due to the low content of saturated fatty acids in rapeseed oils. The results suggest that piglets fed up to 750 mg 22:1n-9/kg body weight/day showed no adverse nutritional or cardiac effects.